Job posting: Workshop content developer and presenter, GIScience

By Sarah Blay on March 19, 2020

Interested UBC Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows may apply by April 5:

Location

UBC Vancouver (most work online)

Position Description

The UBC Library Research Commons is accepting applications for graduate students or postdoctoral fellows to develop and deliver workshops on technology skills relevant to geographic information sciences (GIScience). Applicants who are a good fit for this position have a demonstrated interest in exploring, learning about, and sharing information about technology and its applications. Successful candidates will gain technology skills training experience in a supportive environment.

The UBC Library Research Commons is a multidisciplinary hub located in Koerner Library that supports research endeavors, partnerships, and education. Its programming includes workshops to help members of the UBC research community develop data analysis skills, use geographic information systems (GIS), and learn digital scholarship skills.

Successful applicants will receive training in facilitation from the Centre for Teaching and Learning Technology (CTLT); develop a two-hour workshop on technologies or skills relevant to GIScience; and deliver the workshop in the Research Commons to a target audience of UBC graduate students from various disciplines. Workshop materials will be published on GitHub using a Creative Commons Free Culture license and may be reused in future Research Commons programming.

Examples of possible workshop topics include:

  • Exploratory geospatial data analysis
  • Photo interpretation and feature extraction
  • Web scraping and geoparsing text
  • Geocoding and reverse geocoding
  • Cartographic visualization and design
  • Command-line utilities for GIS
  • Geodesy, projections, and coordinate reference systems

Hours

Positions are available for a total of six workshops. Each candidate may apply to develop between one and three workshops. A candidate hired for one workshop will work 70 hours between May and August 2020:

10 hours orientation and training (May)
40 hours content development (May-July, flexible scheduling)
7.5 hours peer-review and assessment (July)
4 hours content refinement (July)
6 hours workshop delivery (Aug)
2.5 hours offboarding (Aug)

Wages

Hourly wages are based on affiliation with UBC:
• Grad students 32.53/hr
• Postdoctoral fellows 34.07/hr

Qualifications

Minimum

• Currently enrolled in an UBC Graduate Program or working as a UBC Postdoctoral Fellow
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work both independently and in a collaborative team environment
• An aptitude for providing instruction in a group setting

Preferred

• Experience developing and delivering self-contained lessons, workshops, or learning modules
• Experience in interactive teaching environments
• Familiarity with creating web content, writing for the web
• Experience with desktop GIS software (ArcGIS and/or QGIS)
• Familiarity with GIS concepts and principles
• Some experience using Git and Github
• Ability to learn new technologies quickly

Work dates

Work to be completed between May and August 2020

How to apply

Please submit a resume and cover letter by the end of the day Sunday, April 5, 2020:

The cover letter should indicate how many workshops you would like to develop (1-3). For each, briefly describe a topic you would like to teach and how the skills covered could be applied across disciplines. If you have any questions about the position please email Jeremy Buhler (jeremy.buhler@ubc.ca).